Many streams are confronted with heavy metal contaminated sediments which are transported downstream by sedimentation and erosion. There is still a lack of insight in these processes and even more so in their impact on the growth of macrophytes in these streams. Macrophytes themselves influence the streams through patch formation causing variation in stream velocity and thus sedimentation and erosion. Furthermore they affect heavy metal dynamics through adsorption and uptake of these heavy metals during their lifespan and release after dieback.
 
Main objectives
The main goals of this study are to gain a better understanding of these processes and their interaction through experiments and modeling studies. The initial phase will consist of small scale lab experiments with myriophyllum studying the uptake of heavy metals and their influence on growth rate a long with shaking experiments studying the influence of stream velocity on sedimentation and erosion. The results of these experiments will be used to gain insight in the process parameters to set up a simple model and to initiate larger scale lab- and in situ experiments.